A common criticism levied toward World of Warcraft is Blizzard timegating its content. In recent years, Blizzard has elected to lock certain content behind real-time progression. These timegated features include story chapters, the ability to fly, reputation grinds, raid bosses, and certain power grinds. Many fans of World of Warcraft have been annoyed by these timegated features, but maybe it's not as bad as it seems.
World of Warcraft is an MMO, and just like every online game on the market, it wants to keep players playing. The way that Blizzard achieves this is by spreading patch content out over multiple weeks so that players keep logging in. While some timegated features may be an issue, a lot of what players claim to be problematic timegated content may not be.
Timegating Helps Spread Out a Story
Over the years, Blizzard has begun telling its story through multiple weeks of story chapters, or locking story behind reputation grinds. These chapters progress the overall story arc and unlock different features like the Cypher of the First Ones in World of Warcraft: Shadowlands. Some players have considered this a form of timegating as they cannot play through the story right away. However, Blizzard's idea is common in most online games.
Telling the story of World of Warcraft over multiple weeks helps to spread out story chapters, allowing players to digest them. Many live-service titles choose to go down this route, like Fortnite telling its story throughout an entire season. Spreading out the story also lends a sense of scale, as it makes it feel like the champions of Azeroth took a week to progress further in their mission. Story that is locked behind reputation grinds may add to the story, as it makes the player feel like they earned the trust of a faction and are allowed to help them more as a result.
While locking certain features behind story chapters could be an issue, spreading story chapters throughout multiple weeks or behind a reputation grind isn't inherently bad. World of Warcraft is not the only game that chooses to do this, meaning players cannot finish the story in a couple of hours - unless they choose to log in after everything has been unlocked - and thus they have more content to anticipate.
Timegating Helps Fix Content Drought
World of Warcraft is often accused of content droughts, wherein there is nothing for players to do for months on end. Blizzard's decision to timegate content helps players always have something to do. The ability to fly is locked behind achievements that may take days to complete, story chapters give players a reason to log in every week, and farming resources gives them a reason to log in every day. Without timegating, players would likely go through content quickly and be left to grumble about the wait.
Blizzard puts a lot of resources into each patch, and there is usually new zones, quests, items, and resources. While some players want to get through the content as fast as possible, many take their time perusing everything a patch has to offer. These usually have months' worth of content that players have to chew threw if they want to accomplish everything. If there was no timegate, players may run out a lot faster. Creating content faster than players consume it is virtually impossible, and the timegate makes it so that Blizzard does not have to struggle as much with that issue.
Timegating is a World of Warcraft Tradition
While timegating content like player power and resources may be aggravating, the majority of timegated features are normal for online games and World of Warcraft. Back in Wrath of the Lich King, both Ice Crown Citadel and Trail of the Crusader were heavily timegated. It would take weeks for the entire raid to become available, much like how it took a couple of weeks for Shadowlands' last raid Sepulcher of the First Ones to be available. On top of that, there have also been extensive reputation grinds that forced players to grind if they wanted to unlock certain things.
Other forms of timegating have existed in World of Warcraft for years. In Cataclysm, the Molten Front zone required players to grind out Marks of the World Tree if they wanted to play through the story of the zone. Players who wanted the Mists of Pandaria legendary cloak were required to take part in a heavy grind for the story. In World of Warcraft classic there was a timegate known as the Ahn'Qiraj War Effort, which required players to collect massive amounts of materials to unlock raids.
Timegating content has always existed in World of Warcraft, and it is a staple of the MMO genre that keeps players logging in and subscribing. While something can be said about certain timegated features like player power and non-farmable resources, a lot of the timegated features in World of Warcraft are standard and fit the genre's design even if there's room for improvement.
World of Warcraft is available now on PC.